Lakewood to vote like it’s 2010 again

LAKEWOOD – When voters stare at the township Board of Education ballot in November, they can be excused for feeling like it is 2010.

Four of the six people running for three, three-year seats also ran for the school board in 2010. Only one, Tracey Tift, 47, is an incumbent.

Carl Fink, 64, and Yechezkel “Chesky” Seitler, 35, were president and vice president, respectively, last year when they lost their re-election bids.

Since losing his seat, Fink has been a constant presence at school board meetings, arguing for greater transparency and more prudent spending of tax dollars. During the most recent meeting, Fink called a board member some unprintable names before leading a walkout of a group of senior citizens.

Fink and Seitler credit themselves with instituting a series of changes that led to the 2012 ouster of Michael Inzelbuch, the board’s controversial former attorney who many people felt had an outsized influence on district decisions.

Unlike during his successful 2010 bid, Fink believes this time, he might not garner the support of Lakewood’s Vaad, a council of Jewish religious leaders whose voting recommendations often make the difference between winning and losing campaigns.

“I definitely have an uphill battle,” Fink said. “If I’m not successful, I will still challenge the board.”

Seitler, who ran an unsuccessful write-in campaign last year after failing to file on time, said though much of the recent negative financial findings by state auditors occurred while he, Fink and Tift sat on the board, they took the decisive action to oust Inzelbuch once they had a majority.

“He was the de facto administrator of the district at the time,” Seitler said of Inzelbuch, who could not be reached for comment Wednesday.

Ada Gonzalez, the other former board member also slated to appear on November’s ballot, could not be reached for comment Wednesday.

Also filing to run are Aasim Johnson, who unsuccessfully ran for a seat in 2012, when he was an 18-year-old Lakewood High School senior; and newcomer Joshua Weinberger.